24 May – Winthrop to Leavenworth

Woke up to another lovely day.  A little cloud in the sky but still very pleasant.  

Broke camp and headed into to Winthrop for a couple of coffees and cinnamon rolls “to go” (getting into the American slang already LOL).  We noted a sign that about a Winter that, in 1968 & 1969, killed off the majority of orchards in the area.  The temperature got down to minus 45C (which for you imperialists is minus 51F).  Either way pretty blooming cold so we started on our way on to Leavenworth.  The area has lots of orchards, pickers huts (all in pretty good nick by our standards), deer fencing and old trees.  The scenery is fairly bleak, a bit like Utah/Nevada, with everything based around the rivers.  We stopped in Chelan to have our cinnamon rolls for morning tea.

From here on to Cashmere we saw vineyards and more orchards.  At Cashmere we went to the Cashmere Cider Mill to taste some apple ciders.  Just a note here.  Ciders here in America are non-alcoholic and not bubbly.  Alcoholic cider is called hard cider. The ones we tasted were just cider with different flavours but very nice, particularly the one made with heritage apples.  We also tasted some interesting jams, ginger/garlic and some others.

On to Leavenworth and we found ourselves in a quaint, Bavarian style little town.  The weather had turned a little bleak by this stage but we parked the RV in a public parking area and walked to Fourth St, which is the main street, off the highway.  Fourth St is made up of shops, wineries, cafes and gift shops.  Things were getting a little busy due to the lead up for Memorial Day long weekend.  There was even a band playing good old oompah pah music.  

We decided to hit the wine tasting shops first before they closed.  We found that the wines here, most grown locally in the area, varied a lot.  Some we like the whites more while at others we liked the reds more.  Wine tasting fees were only $5 and this was waved if you bought any wine (no probs there LOL), much more reasonable than Napa.  We finished after 5 wine tasting shops, figuring that was enough sips of wine for the day & stumbled back to the RV with our haul of wine (in actual fact we made a couple of trips with the wine J).  

We also moved the RV to a hotel parking area (der Ritterhoff) that offered free camping for $15 (free camping meaning service-free or no hook ups).  It was a good location as we were within staggering distance of the main street, so we headed back in to have dinner at South, a local favourite (apparently) for south-of-the-border, Mexican-style food.  It was nice, nothing flash, but couldn’t complain for only $50.  We had a quick stroll along the street after dinner then headed back to the van.